That attitude could serve him well some days as a Sprint Cup rookie at Roush Fenway Racing and hurt him on others. It also could keep him from crumbling under the spotlight thanks to his new “in a relationship” status with the world-famous Patrick.

“Running for Tony in 2007, we won or we crashed,” Stenhouse says. “But everybody was talking about us. That’s the way I raced my whole life.

“We were always exciting. Sometimes we won, and sometimes we didn’t. And if we did crash, it was spectacular. That is what got us to this point. Now it probably needs to be a little bit different.”

But it can’t be too different. Stenhouse has had too much success, even if it nearly cost him his NASCAR ride as he crashed so much as a Nationwide Series rookie that Roush benched him for a race in 2009.

As a USAC racer, Stenhouse would run fast no matter the division he raced in, and it didn’t take him long to get accustomed to a new track. Racing since age 6, he won nine races and had 19 top-five finishes in 55 starts to earn both USAC rookie honors in the Midget and Sprint divisions.

In just his second start that year for Stewart, Stenhouse sped to a Midget victory at Tri-State Speedway.

But he also had several wrecks and admits that “down in (Stewart’s) pond, a lot of fish hang out around my chassis.”

“The hardest part was pulling the reins back in on him,” Stewart says. “There were races he'd have half a lap lead on second place and crash the car with 10 laps to go. That was the hard stuff to get him to understand, is you don't have to go 100 percent every lap.

“That's stuff that he's learned in the last couple years in Nationwide, is how to take his aggressive style and at the same time be smart about it, make it work to his advantage.”

It can be thrilling and gut-wrenching to see. While just needing to hold his position to win the Nationwide title last year, Stenhouse was racing hard over the final dozen laps at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Stenhouse’s spotter, Mike Calinoff, was pleading with him not to race the drivers around him—some of whom aren’t known for their car control. Stenhouse responded by holding down the microphone button on his radio to tune out his spotter.

How would Stenhouse have felt had he wrecked and lost the championship?

“I don't think about that,” he said after winning the title. “I go out and drive 100 percent every lap. … Luckily I'm not having to tell you how it would have felt.”

His car owner knew exactly what was happening at the time. He knows his driver and his competitive fire.

“There are a lot of drivers that have got the mechanical and technical skill to drive these cars,” Roush says. “But there are fewer of them that can do what Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle … have done through the years.

“There’s fewer of them that can actually can close the deal.”

Closing the deal is what Stenhouse has done so far (insert Patrick joke here if you must) and Roush said a top-15 finish in points is possible for Stenhouse in his rookie year. If he can avoid wrecks and mechanical failures, he could have a shot at making the Chase For the Sprint Cup.

That would be rare for a rookie. Matt Kenseth was 14th in points as a rookie in 2000, Kasey Kahne was 13th in 2004 and Kyle Busch 20th in 2005. Denny Hamlin, third in 2006, has the only top-10 points finish for a rookie in the last 10 years.

Roush believes he has a driver who can be just as tough as those top drivers.

“You’ve got to be able to hang on to this victory, to this space on the racetrack tighter than the guy next to you and it’s a tug-of-war,” Roush says about Stenhouse’s mentality.

“It’s necessary to be able to drive the racecar. It’s necessary to be able to diagnose what the racecar needs. But it’s absolutely required—it’s essential—to be able to have the fight as big as the fight in the guy next to you when it comes time to cross the start-finish line.”

Stenhouse is determined to leave it all out on the track, and what happens, happens. He knows he can’t wreck every week, but he doesn’t feel the need to just ride around. He wants to go out, have fun, drive hard and not to ride around.

“The way I grew up racing Sprint cars—short races, go for it from the start and running on the edge,” Stenhouse says. “That’s my driving style. It almost lost me my ride in 2010.

“But once I started practicing like that, once I started racing like that, as long as I did it every single time, I get the car set up the way I want it to with that driving style.”

His competitors say he doesn’t make moves that put them in bad positions.

“He is ultra aggressive, has amazing car control and makes very good decisions on the racetrack,” says teammate Carl Edwards. “All of those reasons are why he has back-to-back championships in the Nationwide Series. That is tough to do.”

Edwards wasn’t the only driver who has raced against Stenhouse to use the words “car control” when describing him.

“Ricky has really good car control, and I think we have seen him hone in on that from the first part of his career when he was wide open and tore up a lot of stuff,” said Joey Logano, 22, who won nine races in the Nationwide Series last year.

“He must have figured something out or figured out where the limit was and then he found the speed. … He is a good, hard racer and we all make mistakes sometimes and that is normal, but I think he will do a good job.”

Those mistakes nearly cost him the Nationwide title.

Austin Dillon, who finished third in the Nationwide Series as a rookie last year, finished all but one lap last season. Elliott Sadler, who finished second in the standings, completed all but 10.

Stenhouse? He ranked fifth overall in the series — also behind Michael Annett and Cole Whitt — by failing to complete 108 laps. And he still won the championship.

Dillon said that shows that a driver can’t be so concerned about finishing that he doesn’t fight for spots on the track.

“He’s very aggressive,” Dillon says. “He takes the chances when he needs to. I don’t think he’s as much worried about being consistent.

“He’s more about winning races and trying to take it to the front.”

Stenhouse isn’t sure that style, though, will work as a Cup rookie.

“It’s not going to work,” he says. “Sponsors get mad. Jack Roush gets mad. Some of the other drivers get mad if you crash and take them with you.”

While tough on the racetrack, Stenhouse is known as a quiet but personable driver. His racing achievements have provided him with a fan following, and his new romance with Patrick, a fellow Cup rookie and worldwide celebrity, has put him in the spotlight.

“He’s a good dude,” Dillon says. “He kind of keeps to himself. He’ll talk to you and have a good time. He’s a fun person.

“As far as the relationship with a driver—pat on the back to him.”

Part of the job for Stenhouse will be handling the pressure of being a Cup racer. Add to that the additional spotlight as Patrick’s boyfriend and if there is a time for the 25-year-old from Mississippi to crack, this could be it.

“I have spent just enough time with Ricky to be confident that he can handle any amount of pressure,” Edwards says. “I think that he seems to me to be one of those guys that is not going to have any trouble dealing with anything that goes on.

“He goes out here and races because he wants to win and doesn’t care too much what others think.”

He might care what his boss thinks. Roush thinks he has a future Cup champion.

“Ricky Stenhouse will be as good in this business as anybody has been in the modern era,” Roush says. “He is the real deal.”